Wood Ash and Lawn

Annie DeighnaughDecember 1, 2012

DH asked me to post a question here....we have a wood stove which we use frequently and end up with a fair amount of wood ash. He wanted to know if it would be ok and/or useful to spread it evenly but lightly on the lawn. Would this be ok? We already put some in our compost heap and in our outhouse to keep the pit smelling sweet.

Wood ash can be used on your lawn, but with a few cautions. Turfgrass does best in soil that is slightly acidic (pH 6.3-6.8). Wood ash is alkaline, so if your soil is basic (pH above 7) then you don't want to raise the soil pH by using wood ash. Another issue is spreading wood ash. Due to it's fine consistency is can be very difficult to spread it evenly on the lawn. If you find a good way to spread wood ash evenly and your soil is acidic then wood ash would help with the pH and it contains potassium and other micronutrients. It's pH effect is not as dramatic as lime, roughly half as effective by weight, so overapplication is probably not an issue, but avoid having piles of it on the ground as that can lead to areas of high pH.

Wood ashes can be used if your soil PH is acidic. Otherwise best used and great in compost piles as it has a high amount of potassium nitrate. Back in the ole days wood ashes was used to make gun powder by extracting the potassium nitrate from it aka salt peter. Military also used salt peter in coffee to calm down young men libido; hence the name.